The Warmth of Her Dragon
by NekoMimiLover
Summary: She loved the warmth of her dragon, it was a fire that led her our of the darkness. Lucy and Natsu meet as little kids, and this is their journey together as Fairy Tail Wizards. NALU!
1. Chapter 1

**Hi Everybody,**

**This is my first fanfic, and I'm really nervous. So please review and tell me what you think!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, only Mashima- Sensei does. **

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A lone girl sat crying in front of her Mother's grave. That's all she seemed to do since her mother's death one month ago.

"Why did you have to leave me, Mama? Why couldn't you have stayed?" She said in between sobs, "Why does Papa have to be so mean to…"

BOOM!

She was cut off by an explosion behind her. When she turned around, she saw a huge red dragon! The dragon spewed fire everywhere, and its eyes were full of malice.

The girl couldn't move. She could barely breathe through the terror that consumed her. All she could do was stare at the enormous beast in front of her.

When she was finally able to look away from the dragon, she saw the all of the servants who worked for her family running and screaming at the top of their lungs. They were all in front of the mansion trying to escape towards the town.

At that moment she noticed two things about what was happening. The first being that the closest town to the mansion was on the other side of the dragon, so for her to be able to get to where everyone else was, she would have to face the dragon. And second thing being that the dragon wasn't attacking the mansion or the people, simply scaring everyone so that they would leave.

When everyone had finally broken away, and ran towards the town, the dragon seemed to calm down. His eyes lost the hostility in them, and he was no longer breathing fire.

But then the dragon seemed to realize that he was being watched, and he turned to look at the little girl huddled near the grave.

"P-please, you can have anything you want in the house... just don't touch Mama's grave!" She said with more conviction towards the end.

The dragon looked taken aback by her request once he realized what she said. His eyes seemed loving and fatherly when he asked, "Why does that grave mean more to you than the house?"

At first, she was startled at the fact that the ferocious beast in front of her could speak, not just growl and roar, but then she realized that he was looking at her in the way that she wished her own father would. And right then and there the once seemingly terrifying beast had unlocked everything that she had kept hidden from everyone around her. Like the tears flowing down her cheeks like a waterfall, her emotions were let out as well, "Mama was my only friend, and now that she's not here, I'm all alone. Everyday's unbearable; everything reminds me of her. Papa hardly looks at me or talks to me and when he does its all mean. It's almost as if he blames me for her death!" At that point she was crying so hard she could barely speak through her sobs, but she finished softly with, "There's no one left that cares about me anymore."

The dragon felt his heart break at her words. The girl couldn't have been more than 10 years old, yet she she beaten down by the unfair logic of the world. She had lost her childlike innocence from the tragedy around her. And he decided that he was going to help her regain her childlike nature. He wanted to see what she looked like when she smiled. When her sobs quieted down into hiccups, he said, "You know, I have a son named Natsu, and he's probably one of the biggest idiots you could ever find."

She was distracted from her mother's death when the dragon started talking. She looked up at him because she was confused about what he suddenly started talking about, "Is he a dragon?"

The dragon just chuckled, "No, he's a human just like you, and probably around your age. He's really dumb and stubborn. One time Natsu insisted that he could take down a giant fish all by himself, the fish was probably 10 times bigger than Natsu was, and he would've gotten himself eaten alive if I didn't save him!"

The girl started to giggle, "How stupid is he? Why did he think he could beat it?"

The dragon decided that the girl looked much cuter when she smiled, " You're right Natsu is very stupid. He doesn't even know how to read."

The girl gasped then glared when he said this, "What do you mean he can't read? I learned how to read when I was 4 years old. And now I can read books at an adult level!" She said impressed with herself.

"Well as a dragon I never really saw the point in learning how to read in the human language, so if I can't teach Natsu how to read then no one is around to teach him." He felt very awkward under the girls glare.

"That's no excuse! Everyone should learn how to read." She then remember what they were originally talking about, "Even if he doesn't know how to read, it still doesn't make sense how he would be dumb enough to battle that enormous fish." She was very curious as to why this boy was so dumb.

"Well, Natsu is a Dragon Slayer which means he can use Fire Dragon Slaying Magic the human form of the kind of magic that I use. So he thought that with his magic he would be able to defeat it." He realizes the girls eyes started to shine when he mentioned magic. "Do you know anything about magic?"

The girl's smile seemed to stretch across half of her face when she spoke about magic. "Yes, Mama was a Celestial Mage, and she always used to tell me stories all about her adventures! Do you have any stories you could tell me?" She looked up at him with the best puppy dog face she could muster.

The dragon realized his plan was working. "Yes, I have lots of stories. The funnier ones all have to do with Natsu though." The girl seemed so happy at that moment, and she didn't seem scared of the fact that he was a dragon.

The girl thought that this was the best present she could ever be given, stories about MAGIC from a DRAGON! "Would you please tell me some? I would love to hear all about it."

Just as he was about to start talking he realized that too much time had passed since everyone else had fled the mansion. Sooner or later they would probably come back looked for the girl they left behind. "I would love to tell you them, but sooner or later all the people who left earlier will come back, and I need to leave before that happens."

At that moment, it was like she had fallen back into the darkness that had surrounded her since her mother's death. "You have to leave?" She said quietly.

The dragon cursed himself. Just as he was getting the light back into her eyes; they clouded over again. "Yeah, but I could come back and tell you them, but I won't be able to meet you out in the open like this. I attract way too much attention."

The girl brightened up at the thought, "You promise you'll come back?"

"I promise. I never break promises with my friends."

An unreadable expressions crossed her face, "Friends?"

"You said earlier that your mother was your only friend, so I thought you'd like another one," he told her with a grin.

She started to cry after he said that.

"I'm sorry, if you don't want to be friends that's ok, I just thought.." He stopped when she started shaking her head.

"No, it's not that. It's just that I've waited so long for someone to call me there friend. I'd be happy to call you my friend!" She had tears streaming down her face, but at the same time she had the brightest smile on. "And when you come back we can meet at the picnic table over there," she said pointing behind the grave. "It's a nice big clearing surrounded by trees, and is far enough away from the mansion that no one would notice."

"Ok, in one week at noon, I'll meet you there." And with that he flapped his wings and took off into the sky.

"Bye... Wait… What's your name?" The girl screamed up to the flying dragon.

When he heard her, he flew down lower, "I'm the Fire Dragon Igneel, and you are?"

"I'm Lucy Heartfilia!" She declared proudly.

"Well then, Lucy Heartfilia, I'll see you in a week!" Once again Igneel flew towards his home and son.

"BYE IGNEEL! SEE YOU SOON!" Lucy called after her newly made friend. For the first time since her mother's death one month ago, Lucy felt as if light and happiness had come back into her life.

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**Please review and tell me what you thought of my first fanfic!**

**NekoMimiLover**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's the Second Chapter of _The Warmth of Her Dragon!_**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or its characters, only Hiro Mashima- Sensei does. **

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When Igneel neared the large clearing where him and his son lived, he saw the stupidest thing he had ever seen. His son, Natsu, was trying to beat a Gorian without using magic. "I guess I should go help that stubborn son of mine."

ROOOOAAAARRRR!

At the sound of Igneel's roar the Gorian ran away.

When Natsu heard his father's roar he turned around. "Dad! Why did you do that? I could've beaten it all by myself!" Natsu said as if he had somehow gained the powers overnight to be able to defeat a monster like that.

Igneel landed in the clearing and face palmed at his son's words. "Maybe you could of beat it if you used magic, but you weren't. Why weren't you?"

Natsu felt embarrassed from the glare his father was giving him, "That Gorian wasn't using magic, so I wasn't gonna use magic either."

Igneel sighed, "Natsu if you don't use your magic then you're no stronger than a human, and do you really think a mere human could beat that huge gorian?"

Natsu felt ashamed, "No."

"Exactly Natsu, be proud of your magic and use it to your advantage. Also, so you can scare away monsters like that, so I won't need to save you. You have to become stronger so you can protect the people closest to you."

Natsu smiled up at his father, "Yeah, one day I'll be the one protecting you, Dad!"

Igneel chuckled, "Not just me, Natsu. Eventually there are going to be other people who are important and you want to be able to protect them."

Natsu looked puzzled at that, "I don't get. You're my only family. Why do I need anyone else?"

"One day I'm sure you'll know what I mean," Igneel said as he thought of the little girl he had met an hour earlier.

"Oh ok," Natsu looked deep in thought until he started jumping around the maniac because he had just remembered, "Oh that's right! What did you bring back from the human village, Dad?" Natsu asked while jumping around his father's face. "Did you get good food or toys?"

Igneel knew he forgot something, and he was just reminded what. "Umm… I forgot to get stuff for dinner," he replied awkwardly.

"What do you mean you didn't get anything! The reason you left me all alone for most of the day to do nothing is so that you can get food for dinner. And if we don't have food for dinner then we can't eat, and I'm HUNGRY! And you says I'm the stupid one" Natsu whined.

"Is food all you ever think about?" Igneel asked aloud.

"Yes." Natsu said very serious.

Igneel faced palmed and asked, "Well, I guess I should go to the lake and catch something. Do you want to come Natsu?"

"Of course, it was boring being all alone. All I could do was beat up that tree over there," Natsu said pointing to a tree at the edge of the clearing, and it was burnt and charred.

"Natsu, I told you not to destroy our home," Igneel scolded while tapping Natsu's head with his talon.

"Ow… Dad that hurts," Natsu said holding his head.

Igneel huffed, "I guess we should go get dinner now, it'll get dark soon." He looked to the sky to see the sun was about to set.

"Yeah let's go!" Natsu screamed as he got on his father's back.

The father laughed at his child's enthusiasm as he took off towards the lake. He hoped that his son would like the present he hoped to give him, a friend.

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**I know this chapter was short, all the ones after this aren't going to be nearly this short. But this chapter was mainly to introduce Natsu and establish his relationship with Igneel.**

**Also I plan to have this story continue on to where the manga/anime are if I ever get there. So as they get older most likely the rating will go up as well. **

**Please review!**

**NekoMimiLover**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi Everybody, **

**Thank you so much for your support in my story, also sorry for the wait, I just got back from Spring Break and school has been hectic.**

**And without further ado, The Warmth of Her Dragon Chapter 3!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters, only Hiro Mashima does.**

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Lucy was happily heading towards to the appointed meeting spot. She couldn't wait to see Igneel again and hear his stories and learn more about magic! She was happier than she had ever been since her mother's death.

The past week had been horrible for Lucy. She didn't want her father and servants to suspect anything because she knew they would never let her go see Igneel if they found out it was the dragon that had scared them away from their mansion a week ago. Even though she was much happier now, whenever she saw her mother's grave or something of her mother's, Lucy reverted back to her former self, before she had met Igneel.

But because of Igneel, the heaviness in her heart seemed lighter. Meeting Igneel had sparked a fire in her heart that brought light and warmth to her previously cold and dark world. It was big enough to give her hope, but not enough to end her sorrow.

The closer she got to the clearing the happier she got. She was able to leave behind her sorrow and fantasize about stories and magic! When she reached the clearing, she saw that Igneel was already there, "IGNEEL!" She screamed as she hugged his snout. "You came back!"

Igneel chuckled at the girl's antics. "Of course I came back. I never break my promises to my friends!" Igneel felt relieved when he looked at Lucy because he realized that she looked much happier than she did the week before.

Lucy went and sat down at the picnic table. As she sat she swung her legs back in forth in anticipation for talking with the Fire Dragon.

"Well you seem excited," Igneel noted when he saw that she couldn't seem to keep still.

"Of course I'm excited! This past week has been awful!" Lucy pouted.

"What was so bad about this week?" Igneel asked genuinely curious about why she seemed so happy when she had had such a bad week.

At the thought of what was keeping her down, Lucy slumped down in her chair. She was no longer the happy girl she was moments ago, "Multiple reasons really. The first was that I didn't want to wait to see you again…"

Igneel smiled at the young girl's kind words.

"... The second being that my father didn't really pay attention to me at all, even when you had attacked the mansion, he completely ignored me. And lastly, talking with you last week just made me remember how much I miss Mama. She would always listen to me, and she would never ignore me…" When she started talking about her mom, she started crying.

Igneel cursed himself for making her cry. Just when she started finally seeming truly happy, he had plunged her right back into the black abyss that he mother's death had thrown her in. "Lucy can I ask you a question?" When he spoke he tried to sound as sincere and kind as a fire dragon could.

Still crying, Lucy nodded. "What?"

"Do you think your mother would want you to be this sad? Do you think your mother would want to see you cry?" Igneel realized that he had to help her get out of this depression, and he would try to help her find the joys of life on her own.

Lucy looked confused, "What do you mean?"

Igneel mentally sighed, it felt like trying to explain something to Natsu, "I mean did your mother ever like seeing you sad?"

Lucy quickly shook her head, "No! Whenever I was sad Mama would always try to cheer me up, she said it hurt her when I felt sad."

"Exactly!" Igneel practically shouted.

Lucy flinched at the loudness of his voice, "What do you mean 'exactly'?"

Igneel face palmed, it was exactly like explaining something to Natsu, "If your mother was here, she would want you to be happy not sitting here crying for hours." He told her softly.

At the dragon words, she got angry and shouted, "I know that!"

Igneel was shocked by her outburst, "You know that?"

After realizing her outburst, she quietly said, "I know that Mama would want me to be happy instead of sitting here crying. But I don't know how to be happy when Mama isn't there to cheer me up. I've forgotten what it's like to laugh. I've forgotten how to be happy and smile."

It was at that moment that Igneel realized how he could help the girl in front of him. If he brought laughter and smiles into her life, then she could be happy, "Maybe you don't remember how to be happy right now, but you can always learn again?"

The girl looked defeated by the world around her when she said, "I can?"

"Yes, you can always find things to make you happy," As gently as a dragon could he used his claw to wipe her face from the tears.

"But how do I do that?" Lucy was desperate to leave the dark, yet she couldn't seem to manage it by herself, she needed a guiding hand.

"Well, you said that you miss your mother and loved her very much, so why did you love her so much?" He thought the best way to cheer her up was think of happy times with her mother, and then do the same things her mother did to make her happy.

The ghost of a smile made its way across her face at the thought of her happy times with her mother, "Mama was the prettiest person ever! She was kind and gentle, and she always made me laugh."

"What did you love the most about your mother?" Igneel inquired.

A smile had finally made its way on Lucy's face, "I loved her stories she would always tell me."

"What kind of stories did she tell you?" In his head Igneel was cheering that he got Lucy to remember her mother and not be sad.

Lucy looked up to the sky in thought of the tons of stories her mother shared, "She told me tons of different kinds although they were mainly fairy tales or stories revolving around her Celestial Spirits. I liked ones about the Celestial Spirits better because Mama would sometimes bring out her Spirits to tell me stories! Isn't that incredible?" Lucy was waving her hands all around and smiling as bright as the sun.

Igneel laughed at the little girl's enthusiasm, "That's incredible! Hearing their own stories from the actual spirits. So what was your favorite story?"

"Even though the stories about Celestial Spirits are great, I'd have to say I liked the stories Mama told me about her own adventures as a Celestial Spirit mage the best. They were always so incredible, so it made me want to be Celestial Spirit Mage."

"Is that what you want to be when you grow up?"

A determined look crossed Lucy's face at the question, "Yup, that's my dream, to be an incredible Celestial Spirit Mage. I want to collect all 12 Zodiac Keys and be the best wizard ever!" Lucy exclaimed with a laugh.

"It's going to be very hard to collect all 12 of the keys."

Lucy looked crestfallen for a second…

Then Igneel smiled and said, "But I'm sure with that much conviction you'll definitely be able to do it."

Lucy giggled, "I know it's going to be tough, but I love Celestial Spirits!"

Igneel smiled back down to the small girl. He seemed to realize that Lucy's smile brightened the world around her.

"Ne Igneel? Do you have any stories?" Looking up at the huge dragon expectantly.

As he started to think of one to tell her, he realized that most of his past experiences weren't appropriate for the girl in front of him to hear. And Lucy had enough tragedy in her life to begin with, "Well I don't know… What do you want to hear about, Lucy?"

She contemplated her answer for a few moments before she remembered something he had mentioned at their first meeting, "Oh I know! Tell me about your son!"

Igneel looked down at her shocked that she could remember the brief moment he had mentioned his son.

"What was his name?" She was completely ignoring Igneel's flabberghasted expression as she started to talk to herself, "It was Natsu!" She exclaimed proud of herself for remembering.

"I don't really know where to start with Natsu," Igneel replied a little lamely.

"Well..." Lucy started, "What does he look like?"

Igneel instantly knew what to say with that prompt as he confidently stated, "He has spiky, pink hair."

Lucy looked dumbfounded at his description.

"Umm…" he started awkwardly but couldn't finish his thought because Lucy immediately started to laugh.

"Pink hair!" She was practically doubled over from laughing so hard. "That's such a weird color."

Igneel looked surprised as he asked, "Really?" when she finally started to calm down.

Lucy immediately stopped laughing when he said that, "What do you mean, really?" Looking at him with a deadpanned expression.

"Is pink really a weird color?" Igneel asked nervously.

"Of course it's a weird color! Pink hair on a boy is funny!" As she started to giggle again.

"Why is pink hair weird?" Igneel asked genuinely curious about this aspect of humans.

Lucy was stumped. Why was pink weird for a boy, she honestly had to think about that. "Well… pink is often seen as a much more feminine color so boys don't like to wear pink clothes because they think it's hurts their manliness," she said sounded thrice her age.

Igneel was honestly impressed that she even knew what feminine meant let alone properly use it in a sentence. "Oh… that's interesting."

"Wait! Igneel you never knew that?" She asked honestly surprised that the dragon didn't know what was a girly color and what wasn't.

"Well, Lucy, I am a dragon, and not too many dragons try to understand humans. Also, dragons have different customs and different standards of beauty, so I honestly didn't know."

"Oh that makes sense," she said with a nod. "Which reminds me! If Natsu is a human and not a dragon then he isn't your actually son, is he?"

Igneel was once again surprised but the matureness of the girl in front of him, she understood the ways of the world better than most teenagers would. "Yes, that's true, Natsu isn't my real son, but I treat him like one."

Lucy just couldn't seem to wrap her head around this situation with her sparse knowledge of the dragon in front of her and his son. "So, why do you take care of Natsu? Why isn't he with his parents?"

Igneel wasn't sure how she would react to the truth, but he told her anyway, "Well I found Natsu when he was a baby in the forest. His parents had abandoned him, so I took him in as my son. I raised Natsu and taught him magic."

At his story a range of emotions flashed across her face, confused, sadness, loss, and curiosity. But sadness and loss won over in what emotion she was going to respond with, "His parents abandoned him?" She asked in a small voice.

Igneel didn't like the truth either, he couldn't understand why anyone would want to abandon their own child, it was absurd to his dragon nature. Dragons have a very strong sense of loyalty and protection to their children and mates, "Yes, and Natsu knows that I'm not his actual father, so he has abandonment issues. He doesn't like it when I leave, because he just feels like he's going to be left alone again."

Lucy didn't know what to say to that, should she apologize or what? But, Lucy being the curious girl she was couldn't neglect one word he said, "You mentioned it before that Natsu was learning magic, some type of dragon magic, I think. What is it exactly?"

Igneel was thankful for Lucy's incessant curiosity, "He's learning Dragon Slayer Magic. It's a magic that let's him take on the attributes of a dragon. And the type of Dragon Slayer Magic he's learning is for fire."

Lucy's eyes sparkled as brightly as his fire when she asked, "What kind of attributes?"

"Well, because he is a Fire Dragon Slayer he's immune to fire and use fire to attack. But one of the most interesting things is that he he can replenish his magic by eating fire." Replied Igneel knowledgeably.

"HE CAN EAT FIRE!" She screamed in astonishment.

Igneel started to get a nervous sweat thinking lucy thought she was it was scary and that he was a monster.

"THAT'S SO COOL! He must be really amazing!" She looked up at him with awe.

"I think you two would get along really well. You're probably one of the few people in the world that doesn't think Dragon Slayers a monsters." He said thinking of the torment Dragon Slayers have received in the past by other humans.

"Well of course not! Everyone is special and if everyone tried hard I'm sure they could understand each other and become friends. Like Mama's Celestial Spirits, their all my friends not just magic!"

But Igneel could never reply because a voice had cut off whatever he was going to say next.

"LUCY-SAMA~~~~~~. IT'S TIME TO COME INSIDE NOW!" One of the servants yelled out to her.

Lucy immediately froze up at the sound of Spetto's voice. "I'LL BE RIGHT THERE!" She yelled back.

"You should probably go before they come all the way out here and see me," Igneel said really softly to her.

Lucy was devastated at the thought of leaving Igneel again, "I know I should go, but do you promise to come back?"

He smiled down to her, "Of course, I'll be back in four days, same time, same place. And I'll wait until your father away until I leave."

"OK four days it is," she replied with a smile. "See you, Igneel!" And with that she ran off back to her house filled with servants and a neglectful father.

"Bye Lucy" And with that he waited until he took off into the sky towards his son, with the promise of a new friend for him.

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**Thank for reading and please review!**

**NekoMimiLover**


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